


The Countdown

by CrossroadDemonStiles



Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - TiMER Fusion, Apple Pie Life, FBI Agent Castiel, FBI agent John, Firefighter Dean, Lawyer Sam Winchester, M/M, Multi, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-06-14
Packaged: 2018-07-14 10:37:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7167710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrossroadDemonStiles/pseuds/CrossroadDemonStiles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The TiMER AU that no one asked for.</p><p>Dean always thought the idea of soul mates was silly and a fairytale, but for there to actually be a device made out there to literally countdown when you meet the person meant just for you is surely insane. Dean refuses to get one until his brother Sam schedules him an appointment and they get theirs together. Sam gets a countdown right away but Dean’s is blank. </p><p>This was five years ago, Dean’s timer is still blank until one day it isn’t.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Five Years ago / The Prologue  
________________________________

Sometimes Dean wished he had resisted, fought more when the TiMERs became a thing. He always remembered scoffing at how stupid they were and how it was taking away a person’s chance to choose. People deserve free will and that’s always been big on Dean’s mind. They were introduced a long time ago, it’s actually how Sam and Dean’s parents met and came together.  
They were part of the first people to get the device and meet each other. It’s what made Sam always want one despite how soon their mom was taken from them due to a house fire someone started. They never did catch the bastard that did it but it’s what lead Dean to becoming a firefighter so he has no regrets. If he can stop someone else from losing a loved one, he will. 

Regardless, Sam has romantic eyes for the TiMER but all Dean sees is pain growing up, his father’s timer turned blank when she died and he asked the doctor about it. They told them that when their soul mate passes, the timer will fade to black, the screen looking lifeless. It is advised to remove it and just live as well as you can. If that wasn’t depressing, Dean didn’t know what was. Call Dean a hopeless romantic but he’d rather just have a small glimmer of hope and make believe that there is someone out there for everyone regardless of what stupid machine tells you. Though with how he views himself and who he is as a person, he doubts there is someone out there for him. 

Sam wanted a TiMER put on his wrist as soon as possible but John was against it, he stated that if you want to get one when you turn 18, go ahead but until you become legal, you’re not permitted one. It was his way of saying he wanted them to stay in school and at least try to make something out of their lives. John was too busy always buried in work nowadays to bother with anything else. He hunted for fun in his free time but that was sparse when Mary died. He works as a FBI agent chasing down cruel people whom he dubs demons. John always despised people who did evil things and thinks they should all be killed but he knows he can at least catch them and let them get time or hope they raise their weapons so he can shoot them. Dean knows his dad is troubled but not to this degree at least that’s what he deludes himself with. 

Sam grew to be angry at his father but worked to be the best he could at school so he could leave and become a lawyer. Dean meanwhile worked hard at getting his G.E.D as soon as possible and then took part time jobs until he passed a fire station and asked how to go about getting a job there. Four years later, and at 22, he works there full time and loves it. He got to meet some of his best friends there at the station, some have TiMERS and some are bare wristed like he once was. 

He’ll never forget a few weeks after Sam turned 18 and came down to the station to visit Dean. 

“It’s time Dean, I made an appointment and everything.” Sam says, his puppy eyes shining in earnest hope and desire. Dean raises his eyebrows and says, “Congrats?” He never saw it coming, he totally forgot about the big fight they had had years ago. 

“You’ll see.” 

Last damn famous words. 

“I can’t believe you made an appointment for me Sammy! Without even asking me?! What makes you think I want to get one of those damn things put inside me?” He knows he’s being loud and causing a scene in front of everyone as soon as he sees the building they are walking towards. Sam saw it coming naturally and somehow Dean ends up in a chair with Sam there waiting, he had his installed earlier with Dean in the chair waiting and it worked perfectly fine. If anything Sam’s wait time was only a year and a few days, hardly anything to worry about which was crazy. Dean gets a different person to install his though, it’s a woman and she seems almost too jolly. 

“I’m matchmaker Sally and Sam here has already taken care of the installation fee but I do need your id and credit card for the monthly charges of 1.99 to keep it active.” Dean glares over at Sam and Sam shrugs helplessly. Dean’s sure the shrug means, well, it’s a tiny fee for something amazing, so who cares. “Alright, I just need you to sign the clauses of agreement right there.”  
Dean frowns, “what does it actually mean?” 

It’s Sam who answers for Sally though, “Basically just there’s no refunds in case your timer is too long of a wait, too short or…you know, you don’t like your soul mate.”  
“W-what! Sam, how could I not like em, isn’t that the purpose of this stupid invention, they’re supposed to be it for me, right?” Dean asks a bit scared.

Sally is the one with the answer this time with her carefree tone, “Well, come on! I’m sure you watched a few romantic comedies in your life, happy endings don’t always start out great! Sometimes you start off on the wrong foot. That sort of thing happens in real life too! I know a couple who hated each other, worked for different companies and ended up being each other’s soul mates. They’re pretty happy now. “

Sally whispers the end softly and dreamy, as if she wrote the tale up herself. She shakes herself out of her dream like stance and speaks in a happy tone again, “of course some people have love at first sight too, there’s friends that become lovers, and opposites attract, that sort of thing! All the TiMER does is tell you when they will enter your life and you encounter them, everything else kind of happens naturally.”

Well, when worded like that, it all sounds pretty normal and not at all horrible like he thought it would be. He nods more calmed down and lets her begin the installation process. It’s rather simple and slightly painful like getting your ear pierced or in Dean’s case, like stubbing your toe in the middle of the night on the damn bed frame but on your wrist. The TiMER gets installed on a person’s dominant hand’s wrist, for Dean, that’s his right wrist. 

 

The damn thing is installed on his wrist but it seemed broken. 

“Is it supposed to do that?” Dean asked curiously, he had never seen a TiMER look like this before. 

“Uh. Well, it could mean a couple of things, honestly.” The doctor hinges awkwardly, almost skirting around the subject.  
“Give it to me straight doc, and no lyin’ either.” Dean says brashly, clenching his jaw, bracing himself for the bad news he’s bound to receive. He knew it, he had a feeling, he’s fucking cursed and here it is. He was doomed from the start, doomed from when that fire happened probably. 

“See when a TiMER is blank and the countdown of days and minutes are just flashing with dashes, it just more than likely means that your soul mate hasn’t gotten their TiMER.”  
“Or….let me guess, they’re dead or not born yet either, right?” 

The lady shifted slightly and then said, “Well! We’re done here, I wish you both the best of luck!!” 

Dean sighs halfheartedly and then mentally says fuck it, “whatever, I didn’t want to do this from the get go, so it’s not like I had a lot of hope to start with. Anyways, Sam, when yours goes off, what’s it supposed to do?” 

Sam looked so defeated and heartbroken for Dean but glad for the change of subject and told him about how it reaches zero at midnight, the day of when you’re supposed to meet that person and when you do meet them and make eye contact, your timer beeps go off at the same time and then you met them. 

It’s all romantic, Dean is sure. But what Dean wants more than anything is a fucking beer and to just go to sleep.


	2. The Countdown begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a regular Thursday when something startles Dean enough to almost make him fall out of bed.  
> A single beep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Couldn't stop writing! A little short chapter to give ya some more hope! Cas is coming soon. <3

It’s crazy to think how much has happened in the last five years but one thing that has remained the same was Dean’s blank TiMER. The dashes blinking up at him almost mockingly now. It’s funny considering how late he was in getting one but the mere fact that most people have one nowadays and he still doesn’t have a soulmate. The last five years…has been filled with some not so happy moments. 

They hardly see their father but on holidays, Sam ended up moving to Palo Alto California where he later met Jessica Moore, his soulmate. They were annoyingly perfect and beautiful together, Sam was getting his law degree and practically making house with a beautiful blonde. Everything was sweet and nice in their life until it wasn’t and Sam came home one night to finding his place broken into and Jessica lying on the bed, gutted and barely hanging on. 

Sam’s been single and buried into his law stuff even more since losing Jessica, he had his TiMER removed and gave up on love especially since he had it for only a short couple of years before shit happened and hit the fan. Dean is kind of glad his never changed, not when it seemed bad luck always seemed to hit them.  
Dean is living in a one bedroom apartment in Washington, wanting to be close to his father but also because the fire station let him transfer a year ago. He met more friends there; Ash, Jo, Rufus, Benny, and some others he knew vaguely but didn’t talk much at all to.

Ash doesn’t have a TiMER due to not believing in them, Jo has one and her countdown is by far one of the worst one he’s ever seen. The TiMERs don’t even have years marked on them but rather days. If you’re decent at math and know that a year is 365 days, it gets sort of easy to tell how many years a person has before they meet their soul mate. Jo Harvelle isn’t slated to meet hers until 2056 days and some odd hours. 

Dean remembers her bark of laughter at Dean’s surprised face at seeing the countdown, 

“Dean, this is nothing. You should have saw it when I was 18 and it started counting. That was about 3 years ago...” Which means she’s having to wait a total of almost 9 years before she meets her soulmate… at least she actually knows though. Dean has had his for five years and counting and doesn’t even think he has a soulmate at this rate.  


“It’s not that bad! I have a friend who has a worse one. She’s not gonna meet her soulmate til she’s in her fifties by my calculations and she’s only twenty two. She takes it as a sign to just have as much sex with whoever has just as bad as a TiMER as her.” Jo shrugs and continues to put the equipment away. They had been setting up for the start of the day when he arrived with his transfer information and saw her TiMER throughout the day.

“Is that what you do too?” Dean asks with a sly wink, Jo is cute and maybe he has chance until she says, “Oh no, I know my countdown isn’t short…but it just seems like I would be cheating on them…even though I haven’t met them yet, that person is out there. I just couldn’t.” 

It made Dean wonder if he had been cheating all this time, but then decided that no, you can cheat on someone that isn’t even in your life. Jo actually has someone to look forward to, Dean, all this time, has had a blank TiMER and no one to look forward to meeting. He’s as a free as a bird…but somehow as hopeless and defeated as one that has been caged. 

That was last year, now Dean doesn’t really sleep around much at all. There has been no real need or hunger like he used to have. Most people have TiMERs nowadays and that conversation with Jo always makes him feel skivvy even having thoughts of trying stuff with people who have a countdown on their wrist. He loves sex as much as any guy with a libido, but he isn’t for taking someone else’s person. 

\------

It feels like any regular Thursday, his usual night off from the Fire Station, just sitting down on his bed, watching an old episode of Dr. Sexy M.D. when a weird beep noise sounds out. It startles him enough that he almost falls off his bed. He glances down and sees something he thought he would never witness.  
His TiMER went from pointless dashes to saying 5 days and 30 minutes. 

What

The 

Fuck


	3. Anixety: 2 days to go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean gets some much needed help from family and friends to curb the uneasiness within him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for some anxiety.

ANIXIETY: 2 DAYS TO GO

______________________

Dean quickly reaches for his phone, doesn’t give a shit what time it is and dials the first number that he can think of. After a couple of rings, he gets a basic hello.  
“Sammy, you’re not gonna believe what just happened.” 

“What happened? Are you okay?” Sam asked worried.

“I’m fine but dude, my TiMER ain’t broke no more.” Dean says with an odd happiness. He doesn’t know why he feels so hopeful. For all he knows, his soulmate could be a total bitch. Hell, it might not even be a cute girl or a busty Asian! Dean supposes that doesn’t really mean anything, not like how he makes it out to be. Deep down inside, he knows he just wants someone who’s loyal and is someone he can call family. That’s what’s really important to him and means the most. 

“Wait, Dean, you know It was never broke right? Um, anyways, what’s it say? What happened?!” Sam says confused at first but then realizes what Dean means and gets excited.  
“Dude! It says I’m gonna meet my soulmate in 5 days, what if she doesn’t like me, or is like way too smart or something?” Dean starts to really freak out more or less about everything the more he thinks about it and dwells on the fact that his soul mate is going to be in his life soon and he feels like he’s a complete mess. 

“Oh god, she’s not gonna like me, she’s gonna think I’m stupid.” 

“Dean, you’re not stupid, shut up. Also, um... you know what, never mind.” Sam stops himself mid-sentence and changes his mind.  
“No, Sammy, don’t do that to me, what were you going to say, tell me dammit.” Dean says even more annoyed and panicked.  
“Just that, you know your….um soulmate might not be a girl. There is a small off chance it could be a guy. I’m just saying, this goes for everyone period. “  
Dean never even stopped to think that his soulmate could be a dude. He blinks harshly a couple of times and then really starts panicking. “Oh god, I finally get a soulmate after five years of waiting and it could be a guy, which Is fine… I always just though soulmates were love things. But uh, I guess… I’m not surprised to be honest.” He chuckles darkly,” Watch me get a dude that hates my guts.” 

“Dean, that’s not gonna happen! Stop worrying so much, AT LEAST you have one, you have hope, you have something to look forward to while I-I…” Sam’s voice breaks off suddenly realizing he said too much of what he hasn’t really talked much of the last few months after dealing with the loss of Jessica.  
“Sammy…”

“I’m done, call me when you meet them and how it goes.” 

Click. Just like that, the conversation is over. Dean shutters out a sigh and leans back against the bed, his eyes glance to the countdown clock on his wrist, it going down steady. Only a few days before he meets whoever is going to become a big part of his life. He can only hope that they don’t hate each other and it works out okay.

xXx

Dean thought to himself for a little while when he couldn’t sleep, he just kept staring at the wristband counting down. What was changing in five days? Technically he could meet this person anywhere. The more he thought of it, the less he knew. It was going to be a Tuesday, nothing special, just a regular day. He had to work and he was going to visit his father around lunch time if he could. Other than that, just a regular day. Oh god, would he be called to a house to save his soulmate only to watch them die? That would truly be cruel if that’s what he had to look forward to.  
Those were his last worries and thoughts before he opened another beer and drank himself to sleep.

xXx

He had two more days to go before he met his mystery person and he plagued him, made him miserable. He kept stressing when and how it was going to go down. Dean didn’t think he had this much worry and stress since Jess died. He was at the fire station when Jo came up to him, small sad smile and patted his arm in what he supposed was supposed to be in a caring gesture.  
“Dean, you need to stop worrying so much, you’re stressing yourself out, you hardly eat and I think I’ve seen you drink more than anything. Go home, get your shit together and come back on Tuesday. Rest up for the big day.”

“I can’t Jo, I need to keep myself busy, if I don’t, and it’s going to get worse. It’s bad enough I’m by myself…” Dean mutters the last part but Jo hears it anyways. “Then come down to the roadhouse, have a beer among friends. Pretty sure Ellen won’t mind if you stay with her and Bobby for the next couple of days. You can stay in my room, I’ll be out of town with Ash, Amy and Meg.” 

“You sure?” Dean asked, the first ounce of hope that he’s had in a while coloring his voice. If it’s one thing Dean wasn’t made for, it’s being alone. He’s always had someone there with him by his side. Usually it was his father or Sam or the crew. But ever since his TiMER lit up, he’s been away from everyone and scared. 

“Yes you doofus, I’m sure. Now chin up and let’s go, we’re getting a call!” 

He gets ready and suited up as fast as everyone else and prepares to save some lives. He even smiles his first smile of the week and hopes that things do in fact…get better.  
The fire is thankfully not horribly out of control and they manage to actually save the lady’s place from being a total disaster. It’s fixable and even her cat survived. Only him, Jo and Rufus ended up being needed while Benny put his charms on Miss McCree. 

Later that night, the bar is exactly what he needed. Ellen winks at him playfully as she sets down a slice of warm apple pie. “Don’t be an idjit and everything will be fine.” Seriously, Bobby is rubbing off on her, not that that’s a bad thing. He’s happy to see them together. They needed each other after all the loss they went through in their life. 

Dean and Sam weren’t the only one to lose a loved one. Ellen lost her husband during an accident when Jo was young. A call gone wrong, he was a firefighter too which led to Jo wanting to be one. She had always looked up to her father, he was and always will be a hero in her eyes. Ellen used to work crime scenes which is how she met her husband a long time ago.  
Bobby lost his wife to an intruder, poor woman was young and stabbed, similar to Dean’s mother. It’s probably what drove Bobby and John being closer friends, losing their wives in similar horrible ways. They’re both on the force, Bobby being everyone’s boss at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. 

It’s funny because Bobby and Ellen were prime reasons he was weird about the TiMER devices, they both didn’t believe in them and were happy with their loved ones until tragedy struck. They both never saw the point of getting one and just happened to join together and create a happy family in the end. They were prime examples that you could be happy without one, Jo always talked to Ellen about her getting one before Bobby and Ellen had gotten together and Ellen argued that she was happy and didn’t want to bother messing things up for the sake of curiosity. 

Dean had a feeling though that if she did get one and bobby got one, they were meant for each other anyways. At least that’s what Dean likes to think and picture. 

He has a few on the house, plays some pool with friends and just all around forgets about his worries for the most part. He goes home with Bobby and Ellen, they see through his shit and tell him further that he shouldn’t be stressed out about something good finally happening.

“Shit kid, you’re finally catching a break after all the crap you’ve been put through. Don’t look the gift horse in the mouth and just enjoy the ride. I’m rooting for ya Dean, I hope John is too.” Bobby says as he leaves the room, patting Dean on the shoulder. Dean hopes so too, lately Bobby has been more of a dad than John has these past years.  


Dean isn’t one to blame his father though, he gets it, he understands…even if it makes him feel useless and guilty most of the time.


	4. Destiny

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Super big thanks to all the comments and kudos! Literally all the comments and kudos are what makes me want to keep writing. Short chapter to tide ya guys over. <3 <3

Today was the day and Dean was nervous as all hell, he decided to wear his trade mark brown leather jacket when he wasn’t working to take his mind off of the TiMER. His day had started simple enough until he woke up at 7AM to get ready for work and noticed he only had a few hours remaining before he’d meet the mystery person that was his soulmate. 

“Please do not die in a fucking fire.” He whispers to his wrist and then rolls down his shirt to cover it up. Ignorance is bliss after all. 

His day ended up being far busier than he thought possible, the rest he had took really gave him all the strength that he needed for the magical Tuesday. There had been four different fire calls from 9am til 12pm that it would make him late to visiting his father at work to the point where he might actually miss him. Though he supposed he could always say hi to Bobby if John is out in the field. 

He gets ready, getting out of his uniform except for the usual simple fire station shirt and his leather jacket covering up the logo. He wears his steel toed boots and his usual dark denim blue jeans, gets into his impala and drives down towards the FBI building. 

Bobby oversees the violent crimes division where his father works in alongside with Victor Henriksen, Gordon Walker, Peter Sheridan, and Calvin Reidy that he can remember at the top of his head due to different reasons. He’s not a big fan of Gordon nor of Reidy but Peter seems nice in a distant way. The only person he really connects well with is Victor who is pretty awesome in his book.  
He gets to the station just a bit past one with a bag of food from a nice burger place not too far. Sam would disapprove but whatever, he might not live all that long anyways with his sort of job so why not enjoy life?! He waves hello to the pretty lady manning the desk, her name reads Amy. He thinks her last name is pond but he could be wrong, it’s not like it matters to be honest. 

He heads towards his father’s office and is about to knock when he hears a couple of voices. He decides it’d be wise to not just barge in so he heads over to Bobby’s office instead. He can see through the window that it’s empty besides Bobby on the phone so he just makes his way in lifting the bag so Bobby can see. The older man rolls his eyes but nods and finishes up on the phone. 

“Look, I’m telling you that Thomas is cleared over there and he’s one of mine. Don’t make me get down there and ring your neck cause you don’t know how to run a simple background check right.” 

Bang goes the phone right where it belongs. “Damn idjits.” 

“Want lunch since I assume my dad’s busy.”

“Yeah, you missed his lunch break by quite a bit, busy day?” 

“The worst, you would not believe how many damn fires happened today. It’s like people don’t know how to work their damn stoves.” Midway through his sentence he feels like there’s another presence, but he’s not a fan of stopping when he’s talking. Bobby looks up and nods the stranger in. 

“Ah, the new guy, what’s your name again, you got kind of a weird one but you’ll be John Winchester’s new partner since Detective Ballard is out on pregnancy leave.” 

“Castiel, My name Is Castiel Novak.” 

“What the hell kind of name is Castiel?” Dean asks turning around and making eye contact for the first time with the gruff sounding voice and is surprised at the bright blue eyes his green ones meet. 

Randomly two synchronized beeping sounds happen at the same time from both Dean’s and Castiel’s wrists. Dean almost can’t look away from the other’s eyes as he hears the beeping going off, then he looks down finally at where his wrist is like it’s betrayed him, he pulls his leather jacket cuff back and sees the clock has indeed counted down completely. Castiel doesn’t bother doing the same, he knows the sound going off at the same time is enough to warrant what he knows deep within. 

“It is my name and I guess it’s a pleasure to meet your acquaintance….?” It’s clear the stranger/soulmate dude wants his name. Dean is struck sideways, sure it was always a possibility his soulmate could be a man but he didn’t think it would really be true. Bright side, blue eyes is well… attractive, no doubt about that. Dean can easily see them at least getting along in a sexual aspect…he’s not much sure about anything else though.

“Dean… I’m Dean Winchester.”

“Oh balls…” Bobby mutters behind them as if wondering what they all deserved for this to happen.


End file.
